Why America Needs a New Political Awakening

Don’t get me wrong – I love America. I love her undying patriotism; her brief yet resplendent history; and her exuberant heart that still maintains a steady beat of liberty and freedom. However, the course of modern political discourse which occupies most of social media and media itself is – if I may say so without implying a wider insult – rather pathetic and shallow. Daily political coverage of social movements with no ideological backbones dominates the television sets, while the country still softly whispers the name of a teenage boy in a hoodie that got shot in Florida. I shall be blunt – how is the betterment of human society possible when this is the ordinary discourse that flows in its veins?

Admittedly, the question that often stumps me is the question of political identification. I am not a republican or a democrat; after all, both parties adjust to the low level of discourse instead of combating it. The question of liberalism, progressivism, and conservatism is equally as puzzling. I would love to say that I am a liberal – but in the classical sense. I would love to say that I am a progressive – but in a sense that I support the progress of my motherland away from communism. Conservatism is also too narrow a term – for in America it implies classical liberalism while in Russia it suggest die-hard communism. What X is in Y is what Y is in Z and visa a versa.

Therefore, I propose a simple yet elegant way to elevate the American political discourse – an unshackling of politics from a strictly national viewpoint. Let us go above and beyond modern partisanship. Let us appeal not to the talking points of the party leadership, but to the eloquent lines of classical liberal theorists and political philosophers. Let us focus on the ideologies that brought down other nations and equally challenge their philosophical roots. We have all had enough with legalization of weed, American feminism, and political sex scandals. What we need instead is a closer reading of the Federalist Papers, Democracy in America, the Communist Manifesto, and the works of classics. The truth will not be conquered by listening to a television host that repeatedly says that the government is too big or too little. America needs to expand its political discourse, and there is no better time to start than now.